Admiral Ken with his Box Men, Hackney

From the series 'Growing Up Black', a visual record of Morris’s youth in Hackney in the 1970s. Ken Edwards or ‘Admiral Ken’ was a well-known sound system operator and nightclub owner in the 1970s, who made frequent appearances at house parties in Hackney and clubs like Four Aces and Hackney Town Hall. He is captured here with his team behind him in Club Row in Shoreditch, packing up their equipment the morning after a Saturday night party. The trio in the van often performed with Admiral Ken, and consists of boxer Dennis Andries on the left, DJ ‘Henry’ in the middle, and toaster Frederick Howell on the right. From the 1960s onwards Ken owned a number of successful nightclubs around London, which attracted major reggae artists and performers. Among these venues was the Palace Pavilion club, formerly known as ‘Dougie’s’, on Lower Clapton Road, which is now remembered as an iconic institution in the history of Black music in London.